Districts ordered to be redrawn in the next regular legislative session for use in 2020

RALEIGH – A three-judge state court panel today issued a unanimous ruling declaring four state House Districts in Wake County to be unconstitutional. The panel agreed that the unnecessary redrawing of state House Districts 36, 37, 40, and 41 violated the North Carolina Constitution’s prohibition on mid-decade redistricting. The order instructs the legislature to remedy the unconstitutional districts in their next regular session for use in the 2020 general election.

The Southern Coalition for Social Justice represented plaintiffs in NC NAACP v. Lewis. Plaintiffs included NC NAACP, League of Women Voters of NC, Democracy NC, A. Philip Randolph Institute of NC, and four individual Wake County voters.

Allison Riggs, senior voting rights attorney for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and attorney for the plaintiffs in the case, issued the following statement after the court’s ruling:

“Once again, a court has rebuked the North Carolina General Assembly, finding the legislature’s repeated acts of political gamesmanship in the redistricting process to be unconstitutional. For almost this entire decade, legislative leaders have done everything they can to avoid fair elections and accountability to the voters. This decision brings us closer to the day that, for the first time this decade, the voice of the voters and not politicians’ illegal manipulations will determine the outcome of elections.”